The Shan and Kachin valley lordships

Who rules

Name

not known for any valley on 1 January 1200

Title

No single ruler: each muang has its own lord (chao muang, called saopha in the later Burmese records)

Since

not known

Born

not known

Family

The ruling houses that the Tai chronicles trace back before 1200 (a Hsenwi list from 825, a Hsipaw list from 58 BC, a Mogaung founding in 58 BC, a Kengtung predecessor Khemarattha) are later back-projection.

Confidence

low

English Wikipedia (Shan States; Hsenwi State; Hsipaw State; Kengtung State; Mogaung) which says the early history rests on Tai chronicles 'clouded in myth', a Chinese chronicle for Luh Shwan and later accounts; no inscription or dated document is cited for any of these valleys before 1300.

Overlord

Disputed in principle: Pagan claims the nearer valleys and takes tribute in good years; Dali claims the Shweli side through Tengchong and Yongchang; neither is shown to collect anything from the plateau. The Kengtung basin is Wa and Lua country in which Tai settlers are moving (tradition).

What the realm holds

• Hsenwi (Theinni), on the caravan road from Yunnan to the Irrawaddy
• Hsipaw (Onbaung) on the Myitnge road from the Irrawaddy to the Chinese border
• Mong Mit (Momeik) on the Shweli road and the approach to the Mogok ruby gravels
• Mogaung and the jade road at the head of the Uru country (a gathering place; a Tai lordship forms here over the next two centuries)
• The Kengtung basin between the Salween and the Mekong
• The Shweli valley (Namhkam reach) as the road from Yunnan, the Bawzaing wells on the southern plateau edge

How it was acquired

Not applicable: the valleys were not conquered by a single power. Tai chronicles claim descent from older predecessor states with Sanskrit names; none is documented before 1300.

Allies and rivals

Pagan (claim, tribute in some years), Dali (the Shweli claim), the Tai muang of the Mekong (Chiang Rung, Ngoenyang) across the Salween (Tai north), Mong Mao in Dehong (Yunnan). Between themselves the valleys raid for people, not ground.

The realm that morning

A scatter of valley lordships. Pagan's real reach stops at the scarp (Nawnghkio gate); the Burmese chronicle's list of 'Shan' states as Pagan's is later. No Shan state in the later sense exists yet. Names of lords: none known for 1 January 1200.

Wealth

Caravan tolls on the roads from Yunnan (cotton, silk, salt, tea in; metals, horses), rice from the valley floors, salt boiled at the Bawzaing wells, hill produce, and the gem gravels at Mogok and the jade country beyond, which Tai tradition dates to 1217 for Mogok (a founding story, not evidence).

Military

Stockades and levies owed by villages; no numbers; the Nawnghkio gorge is the one place where a small force can stop a large one.

Threats

• A Pagan expedition up the scarp (none dated for this reign)
• Dali or Tai pressure on the Shweli road
• The Tai migration itself, which after 1200 redraws the plateau

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1215 and 1223 (Tai chronicles)Mong Kawng (Mogaung) and Mong Nai are founded; the Ahom leave Mong Mao in 1228 or 1229 with Sukaphaa.Depends on: The Tai migration the chronicles describe; dates are reconstructions. Stopped by: A different order of events; the chronicles are late.
2. 1243 (chronicle) or laterA Tai town at Kengtung is founded by a Mangrai delegate on the chronicle.Depends on: Mangrai's Lan Na and its expansion eastwards. Stopped by: No Lan Na.
3. 1287 and afterWith Pagan's fall the plateau lordships grow into the Shan states that dominate Upper Burma for two centuries.Depends on: Pagan's collapse. Stopped by: Pagan surviving.

Places of note

• Hsenwi (Theinni): The senior northern valley.
• Hsipaw: The Myitnge valley muang.
• Mong Mit (Momeik): The Shweli road valley.
• Mogaung: The jade road.
• Kengtung basin: Wa and Lua country with Tai settlers.

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry powers.txt: 'The great Tai migration ... is only beginning': agreed, with the caution that the migration's dates are from Tai chronicles of later centuries.
• The campaign board entry hsenwi-theinni, hsipaw-onbaung, mogaung, mong-mit-momeik are all 'contested': we keep them as valley lordships with no pinned holder.
• The campaign board entry mogok-ruby-tract and hpakant-jade-tract: used as tracts with working unproven for 1200.

Evidence: The Tai chronicles are later by centuries; no inscription or dated document for these valleys before 1300 appears in anything we read. The map shows valleys, not states.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

On the map: Valleys, not states. The polygons enclose the rice floors and the routes; the hills between them belong to the peoples' provinces.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma, The Royal Historical Commission of King Bagyidaw (Monywe Sayadaw and others), drawing on U Kala's Maha Yazawin (about 1724) and earlier chronicles (1829 to 1832). The standard Burmese court chronicle, compiled six centuries after 1200 from older chronicles now lost. Read online
• Inscriptions of Pagan, Pinya and Ava; Inscriptions of Burma, Various (the Pagan kings, queens, ministers and donors), edited by Tun Nyein, Taw Sein Ko, G. H. Luce and Pe Maung Tin (inscriptions of the 11th to 14th centuries; editions 1899 and 1933 to 1956). The dedicatory inscriptions of Pagan are the only contemporary texts for the kingdom of Narapatisithu (reigning 1174 to 1211). Read online